Signal Boards
explore the code - tap to generate new forms
Abstract, symmetrical compositions generated through colour and form, inviting playful recognition and subtle shifts in perception.
đź”— signalboards.stinajones.art
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Creating Conditions for Emergence
Exploring how structured systems can produce moments of unintended recognition.
Signal Boards is a generative series of abstract, symmetrical compositions built from colour, grid structure, and simple rules – artworks that hover on the threshold between clean abstraction and something that almost behaves like a character.
Strict bilateral symmetry invites the brain to perceive faces or bodies, while the colour palettes create distinct zones and hierarchies – enough structure to hint at figure, machine, or architecture without resolving into anything literal. What appears depends on the eye of the beholder. Some see faces. Some see robots. Some see architecture, or simply colour, rhythm, and shapes. Signal Boards makes room for multiple readings.
This series grew out of a playful coding practice – less like engineering, more like doodling: stacking shapes, nudging colour, shifting rhythm, and waiting for the moment a pattern starts to feel alive. I started simply, leading with grid structure and palette, and then added and adjusted intuitively, without a predefined plan for what the work “should” become. I set up the system and watched what emerged.
Pretty early in the process, I started noticing face-like readings – the accidental recognition your brain registers when it sees patterns and starts trying to make sense of them. That instinct has a name: pareidolia – the tendency to see faces or familiar forms in abstract patterns. I’ve always experienced this phenomenon very clearly (I often spot faces before other people do), so it naturally influences how I build compositions. At one point, I even tested the most obvious move: placing explicit “eyes” along the central axis. It almost worked, but ultimately felt too prescriptive. I didn’t want to push the experience into a single interpretation. I preferred creating the conditions where recognition can happen, without forcing it.
Even though Signal Boards is a fully code-generated project, I didn’t experience it as a big departure from my hand-drawn work. My digital practice has always been somewhat code-adjacent and mixed media – using little bits of HTML/CSS in design contexts and experimenting with p5.js, for example, and sometimes weaving the results back into illustration. My tools shift, but my instincts don’t. I’m still thinking structurally and compositionally, and I’m still drawn to colour and geometry.
In fact, if you’re familiar with my earlier collections, you might recognize some shared visual energy: colour, geometry, structure. The Signal Boards palette connects back to projects like Chromatic Doodles, Algobots, and Sprites – I have a few colour combinations I love and keep returning to. But Signal Boards is its own unique creature.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to oculardelusion for the text & comms support.